A.-L Breguet invented the tourbillon in 1801 and still today it is considered one of the finest watchmaking complications. A tourbillon is a device once used to eliminate the effects of gravity on the rate of a watch. A watch balance will go fast or slow depending on the position of the watch. Breguet got around the problem by rotating the entire balance and escapement about their common axis once a minute. The constant rotation averages out all the positional errors.
